Honey rum in Arucas, Gran Canaria

It’s the Caribbean which has the reputation for rum, not the Canary Islands. But sugar cane has been cultivated on Gran Canaria for over five centuries, long before Columbus took a farewell gift of seedlings to Hispaniola in 1493 after a stop en route to the New World.

And Destilerías Arehucas, Europe’s largest and oldest rum distillery, is still churning out the bottles – so purely to investigate the island’s culture and history further (nothing to do with the free tastings they offer, obviously), we planned a day trip to the home of the Gran Canaria rum distillery in Arucas, in the north of the island.

The short tour of the Aucas rum factory has tempted more famous names than me, from Tom Jones to Spanish royalty whose signatures decorate the 200 litre oak casks in the first of the six bodegas.

Founded in 1884, today half its sugar cane is grown across three of the Canary Islands, while the other half is planted in South Africa before the raw product is shipped over to the site just outside the picturesque town of Arucas.

Next door, the rum ages rather more peacefully than some of the celebrities, resting in 400 litre barrels for years to decades with the caramel scent of the alcohol leaving us feeling just as mellow.

In the Arucas rum factory it’s rather more frantic: glass rattles as bottles shuttle around a conveyor belt where up to 18,000 are filled per hour.

Then the finishing touch is getting to taste all the different flavours. Or as many as you feel like at 11am… There’s anything from banana and lemon to the best-known Gran Canaria honey rum, and helpfully a little shop to enable you to buy a bit more to take home.

Well… it would have been rude not to.

In fine spirits (sorry), we headed into the centre of town to explore. Like Puerto de Mogan, it’s another pretty collection of twisty streets (although a lot hillier) with the impressive Gothic façade of the church of San Juan Bautista looming over the coloured 19th century buildings – its 60m spire is the highest on the island.

After looking round and exploring quickly, it was time for lunch – there’s plenty of cafes with tables outside, and if you love tapas you’ll be in luck (unfortunately, trying to find something toddler-friendly meant our choice ended up being a bit mixed).

As our last full day, we decided to keep limit our trip to find honey rum: Gran Canaria has other temptations for kids, so we headed back after lunch to give the girls a fun afternoon.

My friends headed back to our villa while Minnie requested more beach so we headed to Amadores.

If you’ve got longer to explore the north of Gran Canaria after visiting the Arucas rum factory, the botanic gardens, Jardines de la Marquesa, are just outside town and sound lovely. Or a mile to the north, the Montana de Arucas has some great views across the island.

Need to know: Visiting the rum distillery, Gran Canaria

Destilerías Arehucas is set just outside the town of Arucas – see the map here – and the rum distillery is open Monday till Friday, from 9.30am till 2pm Monday to Thursday and until 6pm on Fridays. Tours run regularly, so there’s no need to book, just turn up and you shouldn’t have to wait too long for a space on the next one.

When we visited, it was free entry but the tours now cost 7 Euros for adults, although children go free.

The tours take place in Spanish although our guide gave us brief translations in English as well – how good the explanations are depend which guide you get, but it’s enough to give an idea of what’s what.

Images/video copyright MummyTravels

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